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Bank of America slammed for 'woke at work' CRT-based training for employees

Employees were allegedly taught that the US is a 'racialized society' that uses 'race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression'

Bank of America Corp has reportedly implemented a racial re-education program that claims the United States is a system of “white supremacy” and encourages employees to become “woke at work”. Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the right-wing think tank Manhattan Institute, reported that Bank of America executive Charles Bowman announced a new “equity” initiative called United in Action, in partnership with the United Way of Central Carolinas. 

A documentary filmmaker and journalist, Rufo has been a staunch critic of critical race theory - or at least the popular perception of that term, which is far removed from the legal and academic movement that originated in the 1970s. He wrote in City Journal, a magazine published by the Manhattan Institute, that he reviewed documents that showed Bank of America executives launched the initiative by encouraging employees to participate in a 21-day race-training “challenge” funded in part by the bank. He claimed it was “built on the principles of critical race theory.”

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As per Rufo, on the program’s first day, employees were allegedly taught that the United States is a “racialized society” that uses “race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression.” He claimed that according to the training program, all Whites, “regardless of one’s socioeconomic class background or other disadvantages,” are “living a life with white-skin privileges.” 

According to the program materials, Rufo wrote, White toddlers “develop racial biases by ages 3 to 5” and “should be actively taught to recognize and reject the ‘smog’ of White privilege.”

The employees were allegedly taught that “racism in America idolizes White physical features and White values as supreme over those of others,” and that being part of the “dominant culture,” White people are more likely to “have more limited imagination,” “experience fear, anxiety, guilt or shame,” “contribute to racial tension, hatred, and violence,” and “react in broken ways.”

The program also allegedly taught that people of color cannot be racist, because “racism is used to justify the position of the dominant group . . . and to uphold White supremacy and superiority.” White employees were allegedly asked to confront their “White privilege” and “White fragility,” to “discover where [they] are on the privilege spectrum.” The employees were reportedly also taught about “microaggressions,” “racial trauma,” “the abolishment of the police,” “the school-to-prison pipeline,” and “environmental justice.”

As per Rufo, America’s economy in this program was described as a “caste system,” with “African-Americans kept exploited and geographically separate.” 

Bank of America also allegedly encouraged employees to become “woke at work” and practice “ally-ship.” Participants, per Rufo, must admit their “words and actions are inherently shaped and influenced by systemic oppression” and must commit to doing “the inner work to figure out a way to acknowledge how [they] participate in oppressive systems.”

With critical race theory acting as kindling for highly charged and polarized conversations online, it was unsurprising that many people on social media slammed Bank of America. “If you are a Bank of America customer I urge you to read this and then make a serious decision about finding a different banking institution,” one tweet read. Rufo’s tweet was quoted by many people who claimed they would be taking their business away from the bank. “This is unacceptable. Their name should be Bank of Anti-America,” said another person on Twitter.

Dan Bishop, US Representative for North Carolina's 9th congressional district and the lead author of North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill" that prohibited transgender people from using public restrooms other than those of their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates, tweeted, “And progressives actually tried saying with a straight face that Critical Race Theory wasn't being taught or presented outside of academia. This neo-Marxist poison is meant solely to divide our republic. Every Republican should be joining the effort to defund #CRT.” Another tweet read: “Workers who are subjected to this type of racist propaganda, may have hostile work environment claims and should consult a qualified lawyer.”